On the radio today, I heard an interesting interview with a 27-year-old who worked for two years to save $20,000. He then spent a year traveling the world - two months in Honduras, two months in Guatemala, two months in Australia, etc. - having what he hoped would be the "best year of his life." Sounds like a great idea, although I'd hate to think that the "best year of my life" was behind me. Its the journey, not the destination, right?

So, in hopes of learning more about this esteemed AE community, I ask the forum: What was the best year of your life (or, if you wouldn't single out one year, give us your thoughts on how you might spend a year if you had worked hard to save up the funds and now had 12 months to do nothing but what you wanted to do).

many Good years,some Bad woman, many good beers and many many miles behind me...and still moving sorry not have one special year but do have special memories flying light aircraft with the door off working (pics) Queensland Australian coast..

I can name the best day. It was utterly horrible. Exceedingly painfull.

May 16, 2001. At 0100 on that morning I ran into a rockslide on I-80 in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This started a chain of events that was horrific in the short term. 8 broken ribs, Crushed right hand, dislocated R elbow and many other painfull injuries.

That event led to me and my wife getting together, her three kids calling me dad and two trips to China to pick up two more children that call me dad. It led to the most joyous time of my life.

I can name the best day. It was utterly horrible. Exceedingly painfull.

May 16, 2001. At 0100 on that morning I ran into a rockslide on I-80 in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This started a chain of events that was horrific in the short term. 8 broken ribs, Crushed right hand, dislocated R elbow and many other painfull injuries.

That event led to me and my wife getting together, her three kids calling me dad and two trips to China to pick up two more children that call me dad. It led to the most joyous time of my life.

One of my college roommates strongly lamented - over and over again - that high school was the best time of his life. That seemed pretty sad. I hope he doesn't still feel that way.

Thru-hikers spend three to six months backpacking the 2,150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Many are young folks fresh out of college or taking sabbaticals from jobs they hate. Others are going through major transitions in life, such as loss of a job, divorce, or death of a spouse. Many of these people begin with the idea that they will "figure out life" during the long journey. Few actually do so. What's really striking, though, is that many successful thru-hikers have real trouble adjusting to real life once the journey is over. Rather than figuring things out, many are left with a sense of unease and even depression. I suspect that 27-year-old who saved for two years to spend a year doing what he wanted to do might experience similar readjustment pains.

One of my college roommates strongly lamented - over and over again - that high school was the best time of his life. That seemed pretty sad. I hope he doesn't still feel that way.

Thru-hikers spend three to six months backpacking the 2,150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Many are young folks fresh out of college or taking sabbaticals from jobs they hate. Others are going through major transitions in life, such as loss of a job, divorce, or death of a spouse. Many of these people begin with the idea that they will "figure out life" during the long journey. Few actually do so. What's really striking, though, is that many successful thru-hikers have real trouble adjusting to real life once the journey is over. Rather than figuring things out, many are left with a sense of unease and even depression. I suspect that 27-year-old who saved for two years to spend a year doing what he wanted to do might experience similar readjustment pains.

Fascinating that you mentioned the thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. I watched a National Geographic program on that. Half the way through the program I wanted to go myself but I noticed a very odd disquietude when hikers were interviewed. It seemed, just as you suggest, that they were conflicted.

Along these lines is Emilio Estevez's The Way. Martin Sheen plays a man who walks a 500 mile pilgrimage in northern Spain after his son dies and he is burned out at work.

As for one's life peaking in high school...that is universally a bad sign. Sad, really.

Looking back, the best year(s) were my second tour at Incirlik air base turkey from 93 to 97. I had a great job working for AFRTS (AFN) and my wife and three boys spent most weekends touring Greek, Roman, crusader and Hittite ruins. We had a blast! I really miss the camaraderie and travel I had in the Air force for 22 years. Daryl

My wife and I want to do the AT after I really retire. Anyone thinking about doing the trail should read Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis he goes into the post trail depression/readjustment and how to deal with it. Daryl

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

One of my college roommates strongly lamented - over and over again - that high school was the best time of his life. That seemed pretty sad. I hope he doesn't still feel that way.

Thru-hikers spend three to six months backpacking the 2,150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Many are young folks fresh out of college or taking sabbaticals from jobs they hate. Others are going through major transitions in life, such as loss of a job, divorce, or death of a spouse. Many of these people begin with the idea that they will "figure out life" during the long journey. Few actually do so. What's really striking, though, is that many successful thru-hikers have real trouble adjusting to real life once the journey is over. Rather than figuring things out, many are left with a sense of unease and even depression. I suspect that 27-year-old who saved for two years to spend a year doing what he wanted to do might experience similar readjustment pains.

The best year of my life is the year I am in. It has always been that way. There has been a lot of twists and turns, choices, events some good some bad. All you can do is muddle thru, never give up, hope for the best.

I cannot name a single year, but I can undoubtedly put together a year worth of memories made up of:

- Selected summer holidays and Christmas as a small kid with my mum, dad and brothers and sister (that probably adds up to say 2 months). - Watching Spurs win the FA Cup with my old dad - twice!! - The remaining 10 months can be gathered from select periods from winter 1998 to date and involve meeting the future Mrs warspite, the birth of my little cruisers Coventry and Penelope and their key moments since - first words, first steps, christenings, communions, confirmations, school plays, dance shows, holidays at Disney and family Christmases.

Family, and especially children - its what life's all about imo

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England expects that every man will do his duty - Horatio Nelson 1805.

I decided to go to Law School instead of West Point and years later realize I made the wrong choice. Raised on Horatio Hornblower and a strong dose of Old Southern Family history, I was functionally a creature of the late 18th/early 19th century living in the 20th and 21st. I strongly identify with Jimmy Buffet from A Pirate Looks at Forty... "My occupational hazard be, my occupation's just not around."

Not really complaining, I'm pretty happy all told. Wondering if I'll ever get the shot at greatness, though. Even at age 44 I still have the fire.

Emory Best, the guy in my avatar, was second in command of 23rd Georgia Regiment when it was posted at Bloody Lane at Antietam. Colonel William Barclay, in command of the regiment, was killed in action. Lt. Col. Best took command. He was seriously wounded and then taken prisoner. This photo was taken while he was in captivity in Baltimore. he was later exchanged and resumed command of the regiment, only to be placed under arrest after most of the regiment was captured at Chancellorsville. He was tried at court martial, convicted, and removed from office. Prior to the war, he was a young lawyer in Rome, Georgia. After the war, he was a city judge in Macon for awhile before taking a position as a clerk in the Interior Department in Washington, D.C. He died in 1912 and is buried in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery. His tombstone does not refer to his service in the Confederate Army.

Emory Best, the guy in my avatar, was second in command of 23rd Georgia Regiment when it was posted at Bloody Lane at Antietam. Colonel William Barclay, in command of the regiment, was killed in action. Lt. Col. Best took command. He was seriously wounded and then taken prisoner. This photo was taken while he was in captivity in Baltimore. he was later exchanged and resumed command of the regiment, only to be placed under arrest after most of the regiment was captured at Chancellorsville. He was tried at court martial, convicted, and removed from office. Prior to the war, he was a young lawyer in Rome, Georgia. After the war, he was a city judge in Macon for awhile before taking a position as a clerk in the Interior Department in Washington, D.C. He died in 1912 and is buried in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery. His tombstone does not refer to his service in the Confederate Army.

Man, that seems kind of rough. Did he really do something at Chancellorsville to deserve that?

Hard to narrow down a best year, and I too hope my best year is ahead of me! But 1993 would probably be a finalist, certainly one of the most interesting. I married my wife in the spring, took command of my Air Defense battery in the National Guard, started my MBA program in the fall, and had our first child born before the end of the year! Along the way I also started martial arts courses, took some community college courses I enjoyed (pre-reqs for the MBA, but more relaxed pace), and spent several weeks fighting the flooding Mississippi in my first National Guard state duty call-up.

Oh, yea, I also worked my 'regular' civilian full-time job all year, but that was never really the interesting part...

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Currently Playing: War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition (learning, not really playing ;) ) LST 325 Fanboy!

Here's more of the story of Emory Best, complete with a surprising personal twist at the end.

During Stonewall Jackson's famous flanking march at Chancellorsville in 1863, he ordered a regiment detached to an exposed point on the right flank of the column. JEB Stuart personally placed the regiment, the 23rd Georgia under the command of Col. Best. Several hours later, the regiment came under assault by Birney's Division with Berdan's U.S. regular sharpshooters in the lead. The Georgians retired to an unfinished railroad cut and it soon became obvious the position would be overrun. Best, who was at the left side of the cut, issued orders for the regiment to retire. He accompanied the left-most company, which made good its escape while under fire. The remainder of the regiment remained in the cut and surrendered.

Charges were brought against Best a month later, after the captured men had been exchanged. The charges included specificaitions of wrongdoing at South Mountain and at Chancellorsville. The court martial convened in Charleston in November 1863, six months after Chancellorsville. Best was acquitted on all counts except the one pertaining to his conduct at the railroad cut. The court determined that it was his duty, as commanding officer, to remain in position to see that his order for the regiment to retire was carried out. By failing to do so, the court concluded, Best has acted "shamefully."

I moved to Rome, Georgia, in 1986 as a young lawyer. I had grown up in Miami and didn't have any ties at all to this area. In 1987, my wife and I took up residence in nearby Floyd Springs. I took a particular interest in Best's case since he had come to Rome as a young lawyer in 1860. He then joined the Floyd Springs Guards as in 1861. Intrigued by his story, I commenced research that would ultimately lead to a magazine article. As part of the research, sometime in the mid 1990s, I tracked down Best's great-nephew, Emory Fred Best, who was then a 76-year-old retired used car dealer in El Cajon, California.

Mr. Best and I had a lengthy and interesting conversation. At the end, he asked me, "Are you by chance any relation to Daniel C. Roper?" (He was Secretary of Commerce under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

Let me clarify. I didn't mean I wish I had entered the service for "fortune and glory." I think any student of military history knows the ugly truths of combat. However, a military career would have both directly and indirectly involved me in various occupations related to geopolitics, the military (duh) and diplomacy. For whatever odd reason, these topics are my passion (hence my willingness to devote untold hours to a certain wildly complicated war-game ).

I became a lawyer in the hopes of pursuing such a career in government (State Dept, Legislator, etc) as those fields are lousy with lawyers (even moreso than other lawyer-infested careers). However, making the jump from Law to Government was harder than I expected. I've had some success, but it turns out the way to get where I wanted to go, ironically, was to go into the military and either be fortunate enough to make the higher ranks or retire and use the experience elsewhere. I've always been a fish out of water - a lawyer who really wanted to be something else.

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

Let me clarify. I didn't mean I wish I had entered the service for "fortune and glory." I think any student of military history knows the ugly truths of combat. However, a military career would have both directly and indirectly involved me in various occupations related to geopolitics, the military (duh) and diplomacy. For whatever odd reason, these topics are my passion (hence my willingness to devote untold hours to a certain wildly complicated war-game ).

I became a lawyer in the hopes of pursuing such a career in government (State Dept, Legislator, etc) as those fields are lousy with lawyers (even moreso than other lawyer-infested careers). However, making the jump from Law to Government was harder than I expected. I've had some success, but it turns out the way to get where I wanted to go, ironically, was to go into the military and either be fortunate enough to make the higher ranks or retire and use the experience elsewhere. I've always been a fish out of water - a lawyer who really wanted to be something else.

Actually, I think you have a very idealistic view of what a military career is like. I found it to be endless hours in the motor pool, dealing with incompetent superiors and law-breaking subordinates, and writing pointless plans, policies, and SOP's. Then for excitement you get to go to the field where you pull tanks out of the mud, break track, get no sleep, and take a shower in the rain because that's the only chance you'll get to see fresh water. Then, of course, you get to respond to absolutely silly requests to supply equipment that you don't have in your TO&E for parades and displays for the civilians, and on THEIR day off you get to march in 100 degree heat to give them a cheap thrill. Then the IG comes and reams you for having two 60 watt bulbs in the stairway instead of three 40's that he says use less energy, and he'll flush each urinal seven times to see if he can get a drop of water out of the valve. Don't want to waste water, he says.

Finally, though, you'll get a few days of actual combat or other "real" situations. They come and go quick. You change your underwear frequently, if you have any.

Then, one day, you get to sit in a job interview trying to explain to some sweet young lady in her 20's why being a trained, hired killer for the government qualifies you for a mid-managment position in her politically liberal company. You change your underwear again.

Yeah, I wouldn't have done anything else, and wouldn't trade my military career for anything, but it's not what the average person thinks it is.

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Occasionally, and randomly, problems and solutions collide. The probability of these collisions is inversely related to the number of committees working on the solutions. -- Me.

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

Let me clarify. I didn't mean I wish I had entered the service for "fortune and glory." I think any student of military history knows the ugly truths of combat. However, a military career would have both directly and indirectly involved me in various occupations related to geopolitics, the military (duh) and diplomacy. For whatever odd reason, these topics are my passion (hence my willingness to devote untold hours to a certain wildly complicated war-game ).

I became a lawyer in the hopes of pursuing such a career in government (State Dept, Legislator, etc) as those fields are lousy with lawyers (even moreso than other lawyer-infested careers). However, making the jump from Law to Government was harder than I expected. I've had some success, but it turns out the way to get where I wanted to go, ironically, was to go into the military and either be fortunate enough to make the higher ranks or retire and use the experience elsewhere. I've always been a fish out of water - a lawyer who really wanted to be something else.

Actually, I think you have a very idealistic view of what a military career is like. I found it to be endless hours in the motor pool, dealing with incompetent superiors and law-breaking subordinates, and writing pointless plans, policies, and SOP's. Then for excitement you get to go to the field where you pull tanks out of the mud, break track, get no sleep, and take a shower in the rain because that's the only chance you'll get to see fresh water. Then, of course, you get to respond to absolutely silly requests to supply equipment that you don't have in your TO&E for parades and displays for the civilians, and on THEIR day off you get to march in 100 degree heat to give them a cheap thrill. Then the IG comes and reams you for having two 60 watt bulbs in the stairway instead of three 40's that he says use less energy, and he'll flush each urinal seven times to see if he can get a drop of water out of the valve. Don't want to waste water, he says.

Finally, though, you'll get a few days of actual combat or other "real" situations. They come and go quick. You change your underwear frequently, if you have any.

Then, one day, you get to sit in a job interview trying to explain to some sweet young lady in her 20's why being a trained, hired killer for the government qualifies you for a mid-managment position in her politically liberal company. You change your underwear again.

Yeah, I wouldn't have done anything else, and wouldn't trade my military career for anything, but it's not what the average person thinks it is.

I saw my dad do much of a 25-year career. The really exciting bits were before I was born. The details in the Navy are different, but it's a lot like what you describe. Shore duty especially. Movies make civilians misunderstand.

And don't get me started on trying to transition to civilian jobs in mid-life.

Then the IG comes and reams you for having two 60 watt bulbs in the stairway instead of three 40's that he says use less energy, and he'll flush each urinal seven times to see if he can get a drop of water out of the valve. Don't want to waste water, he says.

I think my uncle loved his career. Col., Air Force. Especially the PI. They had a maid and a driver. He flew to Hong Kong and Japan and Thailand all the time. I am pretty there were prodigious amounts of alcohol because his cheeks were pretty rosy by the time he retired. He also brought home cool gifts. One time an awesome bamboo fly rod.

He was a physicist so he had to paint radiation reflective paint on goats at the Bravo test. Apparently, it didn't work very well.

Of course, he had to make it through WWII alive, first. That is something his brother was unable to accomplish. All 3 of his kids went into the military. One son was in the Marines but was killed in a car crash. Daughter was a Air Force nurse and never married. One was in the Navy and I am pretty sure faked sleep walking to get a medical discharge.

I cannot name a single year, but I can undoubtedly put together a year worth of memories made up of:

- Selected summer holidays and Christmas as a small kid with my mum, dad and brothers and sister (that probably adds up to say 2 months). - Watching Spurs win the FA Cup with my old dad - twice!! - The remaining 10 months can be gathered from select periods from winter 1998 to date and involve meeting the future Mrs warspite, the birth of my little cruisers Coventry and Penelope and their key moments since - first words, first steps, christenings, communions, confirmations, school plays, dance shows, holidays at Disney and family Christmases.

Family, and especially children - its what life's all about imo

As a Bayern Munich fan I could say the best day of this year will be to see two German teams playing for the Champions League cup in Wembley.

I cannot name a single year, but I can undoubtedly put together a year worth of memories made up of:

- Selected summer holidays and Christmas as a small kid with my mum, dad and brothers and sister (that probably adds up to say 2 months). - Watching Spurs win the FA Cup with my old dad - twice!! - The remaining 10 months can be gathered from select periods from winter 1998 to date and involve meeting the future Mrs warspite, the birth of my little cruisers Coventry and Penelope and their key moments since - first words, first steps, christenings, communions, confirmations, school plays, dance shows, holidays at Disney and family Christmases.

Family, and especially children - its what life's all about imo

As a Bayern Munich fan I could say the best day of this year will be to see two German teams playing for the Champions League cup in Wembley.

warspite1

Enjoy it - should be a good match! Although I will defo be rooting for Dortmund. Can't forgive Munich for losing to Chelsea last year

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England expects that every man will do his duty - Horatio Nelson 1805.